Poll: Vast Majority of GOP Voters Want U.S. Anchor Baby Policy Ended

The vast majority pf Republican voters say the United States should not be granting birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens, a new poll finds.

Last week, President Trump announced he is readying an executive order to end birthright citizenship in the U.S.

The unilateral move would carry the country into the future on the issue, putting the nation more in line with similar Western countries. Currently, the U.S. and Canada are the only developed nations in the world that offer unrestricted birthright citizenship.

The children of illegal aliens are commonly known as "anchor babies," as they anchor their illegal alien and noncitizen parents in the U.S.

In the latest Rasmussen Reports poll, 72 percent of Republican voters and 69 percent of conservatives say the children of illegal aliens should not be granted birthright citizenship solely because they are born on U.S. soil.

United States, Canada Only Nations in Developed World with Unrestricted Birthright Citizenshiphttps://t.co/vNwnzKr2km

Ending the U.S. anchor baby policy is also supported by a majority of high school dropouts, 55 percent, and Americans who only have a high school diploma, at 58 percent. Nearly 50 percent of college dropouts agree that birthright citizenship should not be granted to the children of illegal aliens.

Among all likely voters, ending birthright citizenship splits down the middle. About 47 percent of all voters say the children of illegal aliens should be granted automatic citizenship, while 47 percent say they should not.

The massive support among GOP voters and conservatives for ending the country's anchor baby policy shows the divide between the Republican donor class and the party's populist-nationalist electorate.

Last week, the billionaire Koch brothers' network of organizations announced that they opposed ending the anchor baby policy, with an organization official saying ending birthright citizenship is "against our principles."

Every year, nearly 300,000 anchor babies are born in the U.S., exceeding the total number of all U.S. births in all but two states: California and Texas. Likewise, the annual number of anchor babies born in the U.S. exceeds the number of births in 16 states plus the District of Colombia, combined.

There are more than 30 times as many anchor babies born every year than the total number of children born to native-born Americans in the state of Delaware. Similarly, there are more than 22 times as many anchor babies born every year in the country than there are children born to native-born Americans in the state of South Dakota.

The anchor baby population in the U.S. is almost twice the amount of residents living in the U.S. territory of Guam and more than double the population of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where a projected 107,000 residents live.